Zebulon - Winter 2023 Highlights

NO AGE, Cate Kennan, Dreyted

Los Angeles duo No Age updated the spirit of early independent punk and hardcore by covering their spiky, uptempo songs with washes of textural ambient noise. In their earliest days, the pair sounded like My Bloody Valentine remixing Hüsker Dü's initial SST output, borrowing from both the positive-minded D.I.Y. all-ages scene they were heavily involved with in L.A., as well as healthy amounts of art world stylization. The group would walk the line between these two poles throughout their career, from flirtations with pop-friendly melodies on their 2008 full-length Nouns to the blurred art rock of 2013's An Object. - Fred Thomas.

No Age currently records for Drag City, their newest album ‘People Helping People’ was realeased last Fall.

This is an ALL AGES event

Zebulon

No Age, Cate Kennan, Dreyted

Sleeper Hold

No Age - Fever Dreaming

Cate Kennan

No Age

Gigs

Los Angeles

The Messthetics, James Brandon Lewis

The last time drummer Brendan Canty and bassist Joe Lally were in a band together, they were the rhythmic architects for Fugazi, an organization whose decade and a half of disciplined progressivism provided a necessary bridge between the zenith of late-punk expression and everything alternative in rock that followed. In 2016, the two were enlisted by guitarist Anthony Pirog in a conspiracy to subvert and reimagine the power trio, bringing fully into the 21st Century a form that may have reached near perfection with Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys on the very first day of the 1970s.

With a self-titled recording scheduled for release in the Spring of 2018 on Dischord, the Messthetics will widen the reach of a decisive instrumental music that so far, they have only shared with a privileged handful of east coast and southern audiences. Across its eight original compositions and one cover, Anthony guides the sound through complex changes and harmonic densities that might compound, but never confound or muddy its connection with the listener’s body. Recorded by Brendan in their practice space, the group’s debut gives Anthony ample opportunities to swap guitar textures and styles as freely as an octopus changes patterns.

Brendan’s kit has a big heavy bell that he brought back from the Fugazi days. He maneuvers through this rhythmically shifty music with a fluid briskness that is periodically disrupted by the clang of his bell. Joe spent 8 years in Italy, among other things, woodshedding on eastern rhythms counted in 7 and 13, perfect preparation for the oddly-metered work of the Messthetics. He brings a rock-solid foundation to the groove at the same time playing a harmonic complement as ambitious and interesting as Anthony’s lines.

Bands can be dangerous when their members have accrued enough mileage to see their chops season into something like musical wisdom. When that understanding has the rare opportunity to percolate through a collaborative environment founded in love and anchored in gratitude, well, then shit can get rather intense. Anthony Pirog writes difficult music because original music usually is. Yet the ideas that he feeds through the Messthetics, are embraced by the Canty-Lally time machine, not just with precision and nuance, but with soul, joy, and groove. These last three are, indeed, the big guns in this spiritual war that music must become in the post-Trump era.

The initial concept was to mix noise/improv guitar with dance grooves – a kind of apocalyptic dance party where the beat keeps you moving, but the guitarist relentlessly terrorizes you. The first track, “Mythomania” retains elements of that posture, but as reality has itself become more daunting, Anthony – a fearless guitarist – has moved closer to his listeners, and is now willing to astonish without being so confrontational about it. That doesn’t mean the Messthetics in any way retreat from the responsibilities of a “hard” sound, just that its volume and edge never eat the bold structural ideas that define this new music. Anthony will even lubricate his tricky time signatures with energetic two-note riffs to keep the listener head-bobbing through the twisting structures. And when their collective voice is thick and heavy (like on “Crowds and Power”), it is neither ponderous nor plodding. Their performances and this debut recording have a lift and buoyancy that reflect back into the audience the love and gratitude at the foundation of this trio’s journey

— Dr. Thomas Stanley (aka Bushmeat Sound)

This is a 21+ event

The Messthetics, James Brandon Lewis

Mythomania

James Brandon Lewis

The Messthetics

IDRIS ACKAMOOR AND THE PYRAMIDS

Celebrate the music and legacy of Idris Ackamoor as he performs for the 50th year with his afro-jazz band The Pyramids. Idris has revived the band for this special tour to unveil music from their upcoming commemorative double vinyl album Afro Futuristic Dreams, scheduled for a 2023 release through Strut Records.

Idris is an alto and tenor saxophonist, composer, pianist, percussionist, actor, and tap dancer. He is the Founder, Artistic Director of the legendary jazz and world music ensemble Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids. He is also the Founder of the San Francisco performance company CULTURAL ODYSSEY. Idris has performed and collaborated with tenor Saxophonists Chico Freeman and John Tchicai, the late alto saxophonist Charles Tyler, drummer Famoudou Don Moye of The Art Ensemble of Chicago, The Cecil Taylor Creative Orchestra, choreographer/dancer Bill T. Jones, writer Ntozake Shange and Pearl Cleage, his longtime partner actress Rhodessa Jones, and many others. Idris was a protégé of Chicago legendary master clarinetist Clifford King who had played with Jelly Roll Morton and Freddie Keppard in the 1920s.

“One of the most innovative and progressive jazz collectives around”

– Twisted Soul Magazine

This is a 21+ event

Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids

Idris Ackamoor

Robyn Hitchcock, Kelley Stoltz

Robyn Hitchcock is one of England’s most enduring contemporary singer/songwriters and live performers. A surrealist poet, talented guitarist, cult artist and musician’s musician, Hitchcock is among alternative rock’s father figures and is the closest thing the genre has to a Bob Dylan (not coincidentally his biggest musical inspiration).

Since founding the art-rock band The Soft Boys in 1976, Robyn has recorded more than 20 albums as well as starred in ‘Storefront Hitchcock’ an in concert film recorded in New York and directed by Jonathan Demme.

Blending folk and psychedelia with a wry British nihilism, Robyn describes his songs as ‘paintings you can listen to’. His most recent album is self-titled and marks his 21st release as a solo artist. Out on April 21 2017, the album is produced by Brendan Benson (The Raconteurs). Hitchcock describes it as a “ecstatic work of negativity with nary a dreary groove.”

It has received rave reviews from UNCUT, Rolling Stone, Paste, Tidal and more.

“A gifted melodist, Hitchcock nests engaging lyrics in some of the most bracing, rainbow-hued pop this side of Revolver. He wrests inspiration not from ordinary life but from extraordinary imaginings…” – Rolling Stone

“These 10 gems slither, rock, roll, glide and shapeshift, coalescing around Hitchcock’s typically anxious, strained but striking and immediately identifiable vocals.” – American Songwriter

“Beloved of everyone from Led Zeppelin to REM, Hitchcock has only enhanced his status with this wonderful outing.” – Hot Press

“Witty, moving and seriously catchy, Robyn Hitchcock is a glorious return for a man who wasn’t really gone in the first place.” – Paste Magazine

This is a 21+ event

Robyn Hitchcock

Robyn Hitchcock - The Ghost in You

Kelley Stoltz

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